Are You Ready for Some Football?

As someone who has lived in both Knoxville and Seattle, I am a tiny bit torn with who I’ll be rooting for tonight. (For those of you who don’t know, Peyton Manning was the QB at UT). Honestly, I think I’ll be pulling for a great game, and may the best team win (and, yeah, maybe I’ll be yelling a little harder for the Hawks since not only did we live there for a while, Girlchild was born there.) Of course, I should also root for the Hawks since I am a Redskins fan at heart, and my mother always taught me to root for my division if I couldn’t root for my team, so… GO NFC!

And… since I’m still working on Live For Me, I’ll give you a football-based snippet.

He didn’t often feel the need to shout, but watching football involved yelling, and he hated that it made her so uncomfortable. He winced at the memory. This past Sunday he’d been watching the Redskins play the Cowboys and as the running back made his way up the field all Caleb could do was scream, “Hold onto the ball! Hold onto the ball!” Haleigh had stiffened, but Georgia had been in his lap, bouncing up and down as he told the players what to do. At least Georgie didn’t much care when he yelled.

He’d apologized to Haleigh afterward, berating himself for making her upset, and she’d just given him a wide-eyed shrug before telling him, “It was only a game, Caleb. I’m okay.” She wasn’t okay, she was traumatized, and every day he wanted to get his hands on the bastard who had made her scared of a man barking at the television. She knew he’d never hurt her, but that didn’t stop her from reacting like he would, and that made him angry. Angry at the man who’d mistreated her, angry at himself for not keeping a lid on his rabid fanaticism, angry at her for reacting when she wasn’t in the least bit of danger. It wasn’t fair, but it was there just the same.